Tester toolbox 101 – Developers

I like the developer-tester tension as much as the next person. I think it can be healthy, fun, and lead to improved quality: a prudent tester would make sure to have developers “in their toolbox”.

As with any other tool, it is important to know:

How is it used? What benefits do I get from getting developers’ assistance in this context? Why would I want to ask for it?

When to use it? What is the right time to ask?

Why would you ask for help?

To learn

Developers wrote the software you are testing, after all. So you can at least hope they know how it works. After all, you probably want to know how the thing works? A developer-friend would be happy to share their knowledge – not only on how they coded this or that module, but also on development in general, engineering, also on other subjects (that’s how I learned about the best food in Hawaiʻi).

A great developer would be also happy to hear your feedback on their software. And in return give you hints on how to test it better.

To build tools

You can try writing all your tools yourself. OR you could get help: have your code reviewed, or get fresh ideas. If you are lucky you may even have tools built for you.

To enjoy

It is great to make new friends, and celebrate success together. If you do not agree, I hope you at least like to learn (two bullet points up).

What is the right time to reach out?

When you are stuck

Asking for another person’s opinion is one of the best ways I know to get unstuck. They may come up with a fresh idea, or at least listen so that you can organize your thoughts.

When you need validation of your work

Unsure whether what you are doing is the right thing? Or maybe you did something awesome and want to share? Both are great opportunities to talk to your developers.

Choose your timing

Engineers tend to work best when they are “in the zone”. You do not want to break their focus, nobody likes it. If you see a busy developer – do not interrupt with your questions. Also when they are glaring into the distance (looking for inspiration), reading, sleeping… unless you know exactly when is the right time to approach this specific person – best is not to interrupt them at all.

Managing interruptions is probably part of your work environment culture. Some allow asynchronous requests (calendar invite, email, IM). Others use the headphones rule or some other sign that people are open to interaction.

Do your homework first

If you have not googled the solution to your problem, or have not checked the internal issue database – do it before approaching others with ask for help. Otherwise the answer you might get is an lmgtfy.com link, and a lazy person’s reputation.

My rule of thumb is I set a time limit for myself to solve a problem. If I still have not solved it by then, I spend a little extra time to push myself before reaching out for help. This approach may not work in every case, and estimating the correct amount of time is hard. But when I do it, I use this extra effort to try to learn something new. Even if it does not lead to the solution, I don’t count it as wasted.

How do you get along with developers, then?

I know what does not work:

“Us” vs “Them” blame game – developing vs testing software is not a zero-sum game. Start thinking about the development team as the unit that delivers value, and you are more likely to help each other. You are all in the same boat, after all. So don’t waste time trying to blame this or that person for not catching the bug, or for introducing it. That does not mean you should not do Root Cause Analysis – you absolutely should, and use it to learn from your mistakes. But not to finger point.

“Quality Police” approach – if a development team ships a buggy product you all loose. But if you don’t ship at all, you loose, too. The customer is unhappy in both cases – either they got broken product, or they got nothing at all. Focus on delivering value and try finding ways to move things forward.

What works:

Cover the basics – do your job. It may sound trivial, but I have seen many times when a poorly written bug report led to unnecessary back-and-forth between developers and testers. So if you bug reports have to contain certain information (environment, reproducibility rate etc.) – make sure you always give it.

Find great bugs – everybody loves these. Interesting bugs are a signal that you care, that you spend time and energy testing others’ hard work.